Joint Statement on the Holocaust fuels anger it was meant to end

Polish behavior during l & # 39; Holocaust. Instead, the document has reopened wounds that go back decades

Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Mateusz Morawiecki signed and recited the declaration in their respective capitals last week, after Poland had rescinded sentences of $ 25,000. imprisonment for anyone who claimed that the country bore some responsibility in the Holocaust

. "Polonism" alongside anti – Semitism, was considered a diplomatic coup for Poland, which has long sought international recognition of the massive suffering suffered by its people under the German occupation and for the sake of their own lives. Heroism of resistance fighters against the Nazis

a Polish state-owned bank, PKO Bank Polski, paid advertisements in major international newspapers to publish the full statement – an example of how Polis the authorities of the world. State exploit profits of state-owned enterprises to support their ideological positions.

The bank told The Associated Press on Friday that it would not publish how much it paid for commercials, which Washington, The Wall Street Journal and In an e-mailed statement, PKO Bank Polski Foundation President Malgorzata Glebicka stated that The campaign was part of a "mission to spread the historical truth and build a clear picture of Poland in Poland." the world. "

The publication of a triumphant Polish message in Israel sparked an outcry against Netanyahu, who was accused of accepting a story that betrays the Jewish people." Holocaust survivors born in Poland and their descendants in Israel remember anti-semitism in Poland before, during and after the Second World War

On Wednesday, the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, in a rare reprimand of the Israeli government, said the statement of ministers contains "grave errors and deception." The Jerusalem-based institution said the document particularly exaggerates Poland's resistance work to help the country's large Jewish population

] "Much of the Polish resistance in its various movements has not only helped the Jews, the declaration of the prime ministers recognized the cruelty perpetuated by the Poles vis-à-vis the Jews in some cases, but largely underlined the efforts of the Polish resistance to protect the Jews

"We recognize and condemn all cases of cruelty to Jews committed by the Poles during the Second World War" and honor the "heroic deeds of many Poles" who saved the Jews, the statement said. He also rejected "blaming Poland or the Polish nation as a whole for the atrocities committed by the Nazis and their collaborators from different nations."

In Poland, the bank also faced some questions to pay what was probably a "It's sad, all told, that a bank in which millions of Poles keep their savings is wasting its funds for hunt down the Israeli public, "said Michal Bilewicz, social psychologist at the University of Warsaw. who specializes in the Holocaust. "On one side, they are lowering interest rates on accounts, and on the other hand they are spending millions for government propaganda."

While Netanyahu is accused of disavowing this statement, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Bartosz Cichocki's reaction in Israel "confirms our belief that we must strengthen the cooperation of Polish, Israeli and Jewish historians, teachers and museum guides to protect the truth about the Second World War and the Holocaust, "he said.

Yad Vashem also stated that the amended Holocaust Discourse Act, while banning prison as a criminal sanction, still provides for civil penalties that could hinder research on the subject. Holocaust. say that the lawmakers of the review made last week "does not meet our main concern, which is the potential for intimidation, self-censorship and politicization."